Tongue tie and Breast-feeding – What you need to know!

Tongue tie, or ankyloglossia to give it its correct title, seems to be on the increase in Ireland. One reason for this may be that more babies are breast feeding now than say thirty years ago: thankfully our breastfeeding rates are slowly getting better. A bottle-feeding baby can manage to feed with a tongue tie reasonably well, but it can cause lots of problems for a breastfed baby including poor latch leading to poor feeding, mastitis, sore nipples, low milk supply and intense pain for mum.

Tongue tie is a condition where the tongue is restricted in normal movement by a piece of tissue that anchors it to the floor of the mouth. It can be anterior, which is easy to see, or posterior which is subtler. Posterior ties require a more detailed examination by an experienced health care professional such as a lactation consultant. This examination involves feeling below…